About
National Advisors
Below are profiles of the OSTRC's National Advisors:
| Patricia M. Barnicle | Beth Miller |
| Jennifer Buher-Kane | Wendy Russell |
| Harvey Chism | Vicki Stein |
| Cheri Fancsali | Nicole Yohalem |
Patricia M. Barnicle
Education Consultant
Patricia M. Barnicle is an Education Consultant who focuses on training and staff development for afterschool programs, service learning partnerships, and museum education initiatives. Currently, she is a consultant with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory’s National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning and is their representative in the Northeast and East regions of the country. Pat has served as the East Regional Associate for the National Center for Community Education and has been involved in planning and implementing training for 21st Century Learning Center Grantees since 1999. Prior to her work with NCCE, Ms. Barnicle directed a training program for service learning practitioners at the Lincoln Filene Center at Tufts University in Medford, MA. Her work has always focused on developing strong school/community partnerships to support young people engaged in the learning process.
Jennifer Buher-Kane
Consultant, Out-of-School Time Resource Center
Jennifer Buher-Kane is a Consultant for the Out-of-School Time Resource Center. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Messiah College, majoring in Sociology with two minors in Biology and Chemistry, and is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Sociology and Demography at Penn State.
Her research interests include biodemography, adolescent fertility intentions and behavior, access to healthcare services, and social inequality. Prior to her work with the OSTRC, Jennifer worked with at-risk youth of all ages in various capacities including pregnancy prevention, health education, juvenile justice, and program administration.
Harvey Chism
Vice President of Educational Initiatives
Philadelphia Youth Network
Harvey Chism is the Vice President of Educational Initiatives at the Philadelphia Youth Network. He supports the design and implementation of multiple pathways to graduation programs for out-of-school youth and struggling students. In collaboration with community and city partners, he promotes systemic dropout prevention and recovery efforts; supports a local practitioner network; and engages diverse levels of leadership in the creation of responsive policy and practice.
Before his work with the Philadelphia Youth Network, Mr. Chism's professional experience included work with the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Education for Employment. He also taught high school social studies for several years. Mr. Chism is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
Cheri Fancsali
Senior Program Officer
Academy for Educational Development (AED)
Cheri Fancsali has extensive experience in evaluations and studies of school-based and community-based educational programs, especially those pertaining to school reform, equity issues, teacher professional development, and afterschool programs. Dr. Fancsali has served as project manager/director of numerous multiyear research projects entailing mixed methodology. She is currently project director of AED's outcome study of the Institute for Student Achievement's high school reform model and coprincipal investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded Great Science for Girls project. She was project director of AED's evaluation of the National Writing Project Initiative; the National Science Foundation-funded Teacher Leaders for Mathematics Success study; and AED's study of the Status of Girls In New York City; and associate project director of AED's four-year evaluation of the New York City Board of Education's Middle School Initiative.
Before AED, Dr. Fancsali was an early childhood and special education teacher in New York City. She has taught graduate-level evaluation and educational policy courses at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Fancsali has a Ph.D. in sociology and education from Columbia University, where she also received her master's degree in educational policy.
Beth Miller
President, Miller Midzik Research Associates
Beth M. Miller is the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Nellie Mae Education Dr. Miller was previously the President of Miller-Midzik Research Associates and a Senior Research Advisor at the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, at the Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College. Dr. Miller's reports for the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Critical Hours: Afterschool Programs and Educational Success and The Learning Season: The Untapped Power of Summer to Advance Student Achievement, have been widely disseminated.
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Miller has conducted many influential evaluations, research projects and policy analyses. Her work has focused on bridging the worlds of research, policy and practice in education and out-of-school time. She presents frequently at conferences and meetings, has been quoted in local, national and international media and holds a B.A. from Hampshire College and a Ph.D. in Social Policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University.
Wendy Russell
Senior Research Associate
RMC Research
Wendy Russell, Senior Research Associate at RMC Research, is an experienced project manager, trainer and program evaluator. She is currently a member of Delaware’s Education Support System (DESS), working with three Delaware school districts to build their capacity to support schools identified for improvement. She is doing similar work for the Indiana Department of Education. Her involvement with Baltimore City Public Schools entails training school improvement facilitators on school improvement and schoolwide planning technical assistance delivery. She continues to serve as a program evaluator for two Maryland 21st CCLC programs in Anne Arundel and Howard Counties.
Ms. Russell received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and secondary teaching certification from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her master’s degree in Education is from The American University, Washington, D.C.
Vicki Stein
Professional Development Specialist
Vicki Stein holds a M. Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, with a Specialization in Creative Arts in Learning, from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has worked at Francis Institute, Metropolitan Community College - Penn Valley since 2000 as a Professional Development Specialist providing training and technical assistance to afterschool programs. In addition, she teaches courses to prepare students for the Missouri Youth Development Credential.
Mrs. Stein has presented workshops for state and national afterschool conferences. She is an Endorser for National Afterschool Association Accreditation and a national trainer for Afterschool KidzLit and Afterschool KidzMath.
Nicole Yohalem
Program Director
Forum for Youth Investment
Nicole Yohalem is a program director at the Forum for Youth Investment, where she leads the organization’s efforts to promote youth and civic engagement as well as systems reform in communities across the country. Prior to joining the Forum in 2000, Ms. Yohalem served a youth development specialist at Michigan State University where she developed, implemented, and evaluated community-based youth programs and provided training and technical assistance to programs within the Cooperative Extension Service. She also served as extension educator with Michigan State University, worked in the adolescent division of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, and served as a consultant to the World Bank on education reform in the Latin American and Caribbean region. She received her Master of Education degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in its multidisciplinary Risk and Prevention program.
